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Aakash Gupta

@aakashg0

May 16

There's so many ways orgs mess up transforming the product team away from the feature factory.

Here's the top one's, as I see them:

1. Understanding and commitment

It's not enough to just have engineering, product, and design on board for transformation.

Transformation impacts marketing, sales, customer success, finance...

You need to drive top-down alignment from the CEO and Senior Leadership Team.

2. Shifting culture

Cultural shift is often the hardest element of a transformation:

• Sales is used to promising features
• Marketing is used to dates when features will arrive

The mistake people make is to gloss over the real tensions for the sake of meeting a schedule.

Read 7 tweets

Aakash Gupta

@aakashg0

May 12

The fractional CPO role is the hottest new role in product.

Here's what you need to know:

1/10

1. Fractional v Interim v Consulting

It's easy to confuse the variety of non-traditional product leadership jobs these days.

You can think of a simple 2x2 to distinguish them.

You ask 2 questions:

• Do you lead product?
• Are you full-time?

2/10

This breaks down the four types:

1. Lead product & full-time: Interim CPO

2. Lead product & part time: Fractional CPO

3. Don't lead product & full-time: Regular PM

4. Don't lead product & part-time: Product Consultant or Coach

3/10

Read 11 tweets

Aakash Gupta

@aakashg0

May 11

"I'm in a feature factory. I hate my job."

Spoiler alert: You shouldn't just immediately try to transform the company.

That a recipe for disappointment at best, and getting exited at worst.

Instead, figure out which of these 3 approaches is best for you:

1. Guerilla Tactics
2. Soft Power
3. The Long Game

They all can make you happier, but are totally different.

OPTION 1 - Guerilla Tactics

The reality is that most PMs don’t have the clout to drive transformation for everyone on their own.

So instead of trying to change everyone, you can just change your immediate vicinity.

For instance:

1. Organize 'innovation labs' that champion product model practices.
2. Offer to manage small 'side projects' that run in the product model, showcasing rapid progress.
3. Embed Agile principles subtly, using phrases like 'quick syncs' and 'priority check-ins' to avoid bureaucratic pushback

These are all little, tactical things that you don't have to be super public with. But they make your life better.

The key with all of these is to have a mindset that “I can shape my job.”

OPTION 2 - Soft Power

Another option that has worked for quite a few people is not to go guerilla - but go soft power.

So you're not under cover. You're out in the open.

You do things like:

1. Bring customer discovery and solution iteration into the process
2. Empower your designers and engineers in the what and why
3. Think like an owner about outcomes to drive
4. Then, you document and share those wins.

This is a really nice middle ground that PMs use to get promoted by bringing state of the art practices to their product domain.

Instead of just bringing happiness to your job, you also try to move the company along.

Especially with that step 4.

OPTION 3 - The Long Game

This final option is a long-shot... and too many content creators jumpt to his.

But it can be done by PMs who want to stay at a company--and also effectuate change.

The idea is you:

1. Get in with some execs: you find and win sponsors
2. Patiently prove out the process: you slowly keep showing proof points of success
3. Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate: act as the on-the-ground cheerleader for the initiative

And you try to be that unicorn IC PM who helps drive transformation org-wide.

But beware: the odds are long. Options 1 and 2 also can make you happier.

Too many people underrate them.

I see so many PMs saying stuff like this. It's a shame.

The books idealized too much. Enjoy what you have.

Too many people get the advice, 'if you're not in this ideal, move to it' and I just think that's too one-size-fits all.

Adapt to what's realistic for your situation!

And be happy in your job.

Read 4 tweets

Aakash Gupta

@aakashg0

May 7

This data really stuck with me...

There's a huge gulf between what PMs and designers think each other's responsibilities are.

🧵

From the chart:

1. Do PMs own stakeholder buy-in?
→ 53% of PMs think they do, but only 16% of designers do

2. Do PMs own what features the team should build?
→ 56% of PMs think so, but only 15% of designers do

Source: @NNgroup

Similarly...

3. Does design own product discovery?
→ 73% of designers think so, but only 19% of PMs do

4. Does design own explaining designs to leadership?
→ 76% of designers think so, but only 29% of PMs do

Each discipline thinks it owns things the other doesn't.

Read 11 tweets

Aakash Gupta

@aakashg0

May 3

The product trio is merging.

And it's not just because of AI.

🧵

I first saw this concept from Yuhki Yamashita (@yuhkiyam), CPO of Figma, in 2020.

Well before the current AI boom.

It's driven by 3 key trends:

(Video: @productschool)

1. Engineers are taking an active role in the problem space

It's just a pre-requisite for engineering success these days.

Promotion committees don't just ask, how big was the feature, or important the technical innovation.

They ask: how big was the impact?

Read 10 tweets

Aakash Gupta

@aakashg0

May 2

The product leadership job search is completely unlike the IC PM search.

Here's what you need to know:

(That most people don't)

My collaborator (and 3x Sr Dir of Product) @xolin and I talked to:

• 7 external executive recruiters
• 2 internal big tech executive recruiters
• 2 VC talent teams
• And 10 CPOs and VPs

To learn these 5 things:

1. Less and less jobs get listed

At the Group PM and Principal PM level, 90%+ of jobs are still listed on job boards.

But as you move up, those numbers drop considerably:

• 50-70% of (Sr) Director and Head Of roles
• 20-50% of SVP and VP roles
• <20% of top exec roles

Read 10 tweets

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